1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, which displays a plurality of processing conditions in a job on a screen for displaying setting contents and a history of the job.
2. Description of Prior Art
In a copying machine or a multi function peripheral, the processing conditions (functions and the modes) of a job are displayed in characters and icons on a screen, which displays the setting contents and a history of the job.
For example, technology that displays a plurality of set processing conditions in characters onto a confirmation screen for verifying the setting contents of a copy job is disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-31500 in written form is disclosed. Technology that displays a plurality of processing conditions (modes) in each copy job in characters when displaying a list of the history of the copy job set up and executed in a past is disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H10-271248. Technology that displays a plurality of processing conditions in each job in characters or displays by symbolizing them in one icon when displaying a list of the history of jobs under process or waiting to be processed is disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3499527. Technology that briefly displays processing conditions (contents of processing operations) of a job in icons on a predetermined area (job list area) of a job status screen is disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-154773.
When displaying the plurality of processing conditions in the job, each of the above-mentioned technology displays them only in characters or icons. A display in characters has an advantage of being easily comprehended since the name and contents of the processing conditions are concretely expressed with words. However, when the number of characters increases, there is a disadvantage that the processing conditions become hard to be read. A display in icons has an advantage of being legible since the processing conditions are briefly expressed with a picture (image drawing). However, in the case of processing conditions of low name recognition or low use frequency, there is a disadvantage that the processing conditions with low recognizability or low use frequency are harder to comprehend their contents from the icon. As described above, there are advantages and disadvantages in displaying the processing conditions in characters or in icons. Which processing condition is suitable for being displayed in characters or icons varies by the flexibility and recognizability of the processing condition (whether it is general or special), use frequency of a user, skill level and a preference of the display configuration. Therefore, in a display that inclines toward either a character or an icon, there is a problem that the display that is capable of being easily viewed and comprehended has not been provided for users.
An object of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus, which is capable of displaying a plurality of processing conditions in a job so that it is legible and easily comprehended, to solve the above-mentioned problem.